Muan-gun Cancels Muan Hwangto Mudflat Festival to Respond to COVID-19 and Ensure Residents' Safety

Panorama of Muan Hwangto Mudflat Land (Photo by Muan-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Kim San) and the Muan-gun Festival Promotion Committee (Chairman Park Ilsang) announced on the 22nd that they decided on the 20th to cancel the 8th Muan Hwangto Mudflat Festival, which was scheduled to be held in June, after thoroughly reviewing whether to hold the festival.

This decision by the county and the promotion committee was made based on the judgment that although the spread of COVID-19 has somewhat subsided, it is not yet a stage to be relieved, and the budget allocated for the festival should be used to support small business owners, self-employed people, and vulnerable groups who are experiencing great difficulties.

Above all, it was conveyed that the festival was inevitably canceled because it was inappropriate to hold the festival in a situation where there is an absolute shortage of farming labor ahead of the full-scale busy farming season.

Chairman Park Ilsang of the promotion committee expressed regret, saying, “We planned to promote local specialties through the festival and induce family tourists to participate with various experience events that can be enjoyed in the clean mudflat, but we had no choice but to cancel the festival for the safety of residents and tourists and the recovery of the local economy.”

Meanwhile, the county decided to reorganize the 500 million won budget for the mudflat festival into projects for COVID-19 response support and revitalization of the local economy, to be used for the safety of residents and overcoming the local economic crisis.

In addition, the county canceled the Choui Seonsa Birth Culture Festival and Residents' Day events scheduled for this year, and urgently organized an additional budget of 17.2 billion won, including 5.4 billion won for emergency living expenses for childcare and vulnerable groups and 5 billion won for small business management stabilization funds, making every effort to stabilize the local economy.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.